Egor Demin continues to lead Nets’ youth movement as Jordi Fernandez walks pivotal tightrope

Egor Dëmin was largely the first brick in Brooklyn’s rebuild.

In June, he became their first lottery pick in 15 years.

And now he’s the first Net named to the Rising Stars Competition at All-Star Weekend since 2019.

The tanking Nets headed into Tuesday’s tilt in Phoenix with the fifth-worst record in the NBA, but they’re the youngest team in the league.

They have a record five first-round rookies on the roster, led by Dëmin, and the teenage point guard will be Brooklyn’s first representative at All-Star weekend since Kevin Durant in 2022.

While veteran forward Michael Porter Jr. will find out Sunday whether he’s been named to the All-Star reserves, Dëmin has already punched his ticket to Intuit Dome for the Feb. 13 Rising Stars game, with squads drafted Tuesday night.

The Russian teen is the first Net selected since 2019, when Rodions Kurucs made the rookie team and Jarrett Allen the sophomore squad.

Picked eighth overall, Dëmin entered the Suns tilt averaging 10.2 points, 3.4 assists and 3.3 rebounds on 40/40/85 shooting splits.

He’s second in this rookie class in 3-pointers per game (2.4) and total 3s (95), seventh in assists and 10th in scoring.

And he’s first in a five-man Nets class that will be the key to their rebuild.

After Dëmin, Brooklyn drafted fellow point guard Nolan Traore 19th overall, Drake Powell 22nd, Ben Saraf 26th and finally Danny Wolf one pick later.

Now Jordi Fernández must walk the tightrope of developing his youngsters while losing, and somehow not letting them develop losing habits.

“Yeah, obviously experience in those minutes are important. There’s no (better teacher), nothing better than competitive minutes to improve,” Fernández said of the rookie quintet. “(But) if you play too many losing minutes, also it can create a lot of bad habits. So it’s a fine line. It’s obviously good to see them on the court, but we want them to be better. And we believe they can get there.”

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Fernández said this with the Nets entering Tuesday’s game having dropped 10 of their last 11.

Two of them were lopsided beatings, a 54-point loss last Wednesday at the Garden and then a 37-point loss at the Clippers.

They’re clearly starting to exhibit those bad habits Fernández warned of.

Though the defeats might be conducive to improving the odds in the May lottery, they’re counterproductive to developing good habits.

“We’ve got to get back to competing every night. So from players to the guys on the bench to the coaches, we all just got to get back to competing,” said Porter.

“We’ve got to find a way to get better, keep practicing, keep developing. And all of us have just got to keep getting better, so that we can beat these really good, experienced teams on the road.”

Whoever the Nets land with their lottery pick in June will be expected to be the single biggest brick in their rebuild.

But at the moment, the foundation is this quintet of rookies they’re trying to develop this season.

Dëmin joins Kon Knueppel and VJ Edgecombe as the only rookies averaging at least 10 points, three assists, three boards and multiple 3s.

But his inability to get downhill and touch the paint keeps him from unlocking his full passing potential. It’s a ballhandling Achilles heel that leaves the Nets in need of on-ball creation.

Can the Nets develop Traore into that?

While Dëmin plays like a high-passing wing, Traore is a blur and a natural playmaker — albeit one who needs to improve his jumper and finishing at the rim.

He’d averaged 11.8 points on .368 shooting from 3 and a promising floater in his prior four games — but will need size and strength to become a high-end role player.

It remains to be seen if any of Dëmin’s Nets classmates make next year’s Rising Stars as sophomores, or if Brooklyn’s upcoming lottery pick makes it as a rookie.

But they’ll all be the foundation of this rebuild, and it’s up to Fernández to make sure that bad habits don’t get baked into that build.